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Kidnapped

First American edition, New York: Scribner's Sons, 1886
Author	Robert Louis Stevenson
Language	English, Lowland Scots
Genre	Adventure novel Historical novel
Publisher	Cassell and Company Ltd
Publication date	1886
Publication place	Scotland
Pages	136
OCLC	43167976
Dewey Decimal	823/.8 21
LC Class	PR5484 .K5 2000
Followed by	Catriona (1893)

Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, written as a boys' novel and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886. The novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, and Hilary Mantel. A sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893.

The narrative is written in English with some dialogue in Lowland Scots, a Germanic language that evolved from an earlier incarnation of English.

Kidnapped is set around real 18th-century Scottish events, notably the "Appin Murder", which occurred in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Many of the characters are real people, including one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart. The political situation of the time is portrayed from multiple viewpoints, and the Scottish Highlanders are treated sympathetically.

The full title of the book is Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; His Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Plot

Personajul principal și naratorul este David Balfour, în vârstă de 16 ani. Părinții lui au murit recent și el este gata să-și croiască drum în lume. El primește o scrisoare de la ministrul din Essendean, domnul Campbell, care urmează să fie predată Casei Shaws din Cramond, unde locuiește unchiul lui David, Ebenezer Balfour. David ajunge la casa de rău augur Shaws și este confruntat cu unchiul său paranoic Ebenezer, care este înarmat cu o gafă. Unchiul său este, de asemenea, zgârcit, trăind din „perritch” și bere mică, iar Casa Shaws în sine este parțial neterminată și oarecum ruinoasă. David are voie să rămână și în curând descoperă dovezi că tatăl său ar fi fost mai în vârstă decât unchiul său, făcându-l astfel moștenitorul de drept al moșiei. Ebenezer îi cere lui David să ia un cufăr din vârful unui turn din casă, dar refuză să ofere o lampă sau o lumânare. David este forțat să urce scările în întuneric și își dă seama că nu numai că turnul este neterminat pe alocuri, dar treptele pur și simplu se termină brusc și cad într-un abis. David ajunge la concluzia că unchiul său a intenționat ca el să aibă un „accident”, poate pentru a nu fi nevoit să predea moștenirea nepotului său. David se confruntă cu unchiul său, care promite că a doua zi dimineață îi va spune lui David întreaga poveste a tatălui său. Băiatul de cabina al unei nave, Ransome, sosește a doua zi dimineață și îi spune lui Ebenezer că căpitanul Hoseason al brigului „Covenant” trebuie să se întâlnească cu el pentru a discuta despre afaceri. Ebenezer îl duce pe David la un dig de pe Firth of Forth, unde îl așteaptă Hoseason, iar David face greșeala de a-și lăsa unchiul singur cu căpitanul în timp ce vizitează malul cu Ransome. Mai târziu, Hoseason se oferă să-i ia la bordul bricului pentru o băutură și un scurt tur, iar David se conformează, doar pentru a-și vedea unchiul întorcându-se la țărm singur într-un skiff. David este imediat lovit fără sens. David se trezește, legat de mâini și de picioare, în cala navei și află că, conform aranjamentului cu unchiul lui David, căpitanul plănuiește să-l vândă în sclavie în Caroline. Dar nava întâlnește vânturi contrare, care o împing înapoi spre Scoția. Legați de ceață în apropierea Hebridelor, ei lovesc o barcă mică. Toți membrii echipajului bărcii mici sunt uciși, cu excepția unui bărbat, Alan Breck Stewart, care este adus la bord și îi oferă lui Hoseason o sumă mare de bani pentru a-l lăsa pe continent. Mai târziu, David aude echipajul complotând să-l omoare pe Alan și să-i ia toți banii. David și Alan se baricadează în casa rotundă, unde Alan îl ucide pe ucigașul Shuan, iar David îl rănește pe Hoseason. Cinci dintre membrii echipajului sunt uciși pe loc, iar restul refuză să continue lupta. Hoseason nu are de ales decât să-i dea lui Alan și lui David trecerea înapoi pe continent. David îi spune povestea lui Alan, care, la rândul său, afirmă că locul său de naștere, Appin, se află sub administrarea tiranică a lui Colin Roy din Glenure, factor al regelui. și un Campbell. Alan, care este un agent iacobit și poartă o uniformă franceză, jură că, dacă o găsește pe „Vulpea roșie”, îl va ucide. Covenant încearcă să negocieze un canal dificil fără o diagramă sau un pilot adecvat și este în curând eșuat pe faimoasa Torran Rocks. David și Alan sunt despărțiți în confuzie, David fiind spălat la țărm pe insula Erraid, lângă Mull, în timp ce Alan și echipajul supraviețuitor se îndreaptă spre siguranță pe aceeași insulă. David petrece câteva zile singur în sălbăticie înainte de a se orienta. David află că noul său prieten a supraviețuit, iar David are două întâlniri cu ghizi cerșetori: unul care încearcă să-l înjunghie cu un cuțit și altul care este orb, dar are o lovitură excelentă cu un pistol. David ajunge curând la Torosay, unde este transportat cu feribotul peste râu, primește instrucțiuni suplimentare de la prietenul lui Alan, Neil Roy McRob, iar mai târziu întâlnește un catehet care îl duce pe flăcău pe continent.

În timp ce își continuă călătoria, David îl întâlnește pe nimeni altul decât Vulpea Roșie, Colin Roy Campbell însuși, care este însoțit de un avocat, un servitor și un ofițer de șeriful. Când David se oprește s the Campbell man to ask him for directions, a hidden sniper kills the King's hated agent.

David is denounced as a conspirator and flees for his life, but by chance reunites with Alan. The youth believes Alan is the assassin, but Alan denies responsibility. Alan and David then begin their flight through the heather, hiding from government soldiers by day. As the trek drains David's strength, his health rapidly deteriorates; by the time they are set upon by wild Highlanders who are sentries for Cluny Macpherson, an outlawed chief in hiding, the lad is barely conscious. Alan convinces Cluny to give them shelter, and David is tended by a Highland doctor. He soon recovers, though in the meantime Alan loses all of their money at cards with Cluny, only for Cluny to give it back when David practically begs for it.

When David and Alan resume their flight in cold and rainy weather, David becomes ill again, and Alan carries him on his back down the burn to reach the nearest house, fortuitously that of a Maclaren, Duncan Dhu, who is both an ally of the Stewarts and a skilled piper. David is bedridden and given a doctor's care, while Alan hides nearby, visiting after dark.

In one of the most humorous passages in the book, Alan convinces an innkeeper's daughter from Limekilns (unnamed in Kidnapped but called "Alison Hastie" in its sequel) that David is a dying young Jacobite nobleman, despite David's objections, and she ferries them across the Firth of Forth. There, they meet a lawyer of David's uncle's, Mr Rankeillor, who agrees to help David receive his inheritance. Rankeillor explains that David's father and uncle had once quarrelled over a woman, David's mother, and the older Balfour had married her, informally giving the estate to his brother while living as an impoverished schoolteacher with his wife. This agreement had lapsed with his death.

David and the lawyer hide in bushes outside Ebenezer's house while Alan speaks to him, claiming to be a man who found David nearly dead after the wreck of the Covenant and says he is representing folk holding him captive in the Hebrides. He asks David's uncle whether Alan should kill David or keep him. The uncle flatly denies Alan's statement that David had been kidnapped but eventually admits that he paid Hoseason "twenty pound" to take David to "Caroliny". David and Rankeillor then emerge from their hiding places, and speak with Ebenezer in the kitchen, eventually agreeing that David will be provided two-thirds of the estate's income for as long as his uncle lives.

The novel ends with David and Alan parting ways on Corstorphine Hill; Alan returns to France, and David goes to a bank to settle his money.

Characters

• David Balfour is 17 and his parents have died. He seeks his inheritance from his father’s brother. The last name of this character is taken from the maiden name of the author’s mother.
• Ebenezer Balfour is his uncle, living in the entailed estate.
• Alexander Balfour, father of David and older brother of Ebenezer.
• Alan Breck Stewart is his companion, and is a character drawn from life.
• Colin Roy Campbell, also known as the Red Fox. He meets David at Appin on his walk across Scotland, just before a sniper shoots him dead. The Appin murder mentioned in the story was a historical event followed by a controversial trial.

The character James Stewart was real, and the man hanged for killing Colin Roy Campbell, though James was not the killer.

Cluny MacPherson and Rob Roy MacGregor and his son, Robìn Òig or Young Rob, mentioned or met along the way, were real people.

Genre

Kidnapped is a historical romance, but by the time it was written, attitudes towards the genre had evolved from the earlier insistence on historical accuracy to one of faithfulness to the spirit of a bygone age. In the words of a critic writing in Bentley's Miscellany, the historical novelist "must follow rather the poetry of history than its chronology: his business is not to be the slave of dates; he ought to be faithful to the character of the epoch". Indeed, in the preface to Kidnapped Stevenson warns the reader that historical accuracy was not primarily his aim, remarking "how little I am touched by the desire of accuracy".

Stevenson presents the Jacobite version of the Appin murder in the novel, but sets the events in 1751, whereas the murder occurred in 1752.

Publication history and author

Kidnapped was first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, and as a novel in the same year.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) planned to write this story as early as 1880. He immersed himself in books on Scotland in the early and middle 18th century in preparation for writing. He was born and raised in Edinburgh, then travelled in England, France and the US. After his father died, he took his wife, children and his own mother as he traveled in search of a place more salutary to his health, finally building a house in Samoa, where he later died at age 44. He wrote Kidnapped on his stay in England.

Stevenson remains one of the most popular and revered writers in the history of the English language, and was extremely prolific. His other works include Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Major themes

A central theme of the novel is the concept of justice, the imperfections of the justice system and the lack of a universal definition of justice. To David justice means the restoration of his inheritance, whereas for Alan it means the death of his enemy Colin Roy of Glenure.

Literary critic Leslie Fiedler has suggested that a unifying "mythic concept" in several of Stevenson's books, including Kidnapped, is what might be called the "Beloved Scoundrel", or the "Devil as Angel", "the beauty of evil". The Rogue in this instance is of course Alan, "a rebel, a deserter, perhaps a murderer ... without a shred of Christian morality". Good nevertheless triumphs over evil, as in David Balfour's situation.

Literary significance and criticism

Kidnapped was well received and sold well while Stevenson was alive. After his death many viewed it with scepticism, seeing it as simply a boys' novel. By the mid-20th century it had regained critical approval and study. The novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, and Hilary Mantel.

While it is basically an adventure novel, it raises various moral issues, such as the nature of justice and the fact that friends may have different political viewpoints.

Adaptations

The novel has been adapted a number of times, and in multiple media.

Film and television versions were made in 1917, 1938, 1948, 1960, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1986, 1995 and 2005.

Marvel Illustrated published a comic book version in 2007–2008, by Roy Thomas and Mario Gully, who had previously adapted Treasure Island.

A four-part adaptation written by Catherine Czerkawska and starring David Rintoul as David Balfour and Paul Young as Alan Breck Stewart was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1985. A more recent two-part adaptation written by Chris Dolan and starring Owen Whitelaw as David Balfour and Michael Nardone as Alan Breck was broadcast also on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.

In 2023 the National Theatre of Scotland performed a new stage adaptation, which featured Frances Stevenson as a spirit guide, and reimagined the relationship between David Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart as a romance.

Possible inspirations for the plot

It has been speculated that the novel was inspired in part by the true story from earlier in the 18th century of James Annesley, heir to five aristocratic titles who was kidnapped at the age of 12 by his uncle Richard and shipped from Dublin to America in 1728. He managed to escape after 13 years and return to reclaim his birthright from his uncle in one of the longest courtroom dramas of its time. Kidnapped does not end in the way Annesley's life story did, as the ship on which the main character was kidnapped never got beyond Scotland, allowing for a rich story of Scotland, highlands and lowlands. Further, a key event in the plot happens when David is present when Colin Roy Campbell falls dead from the unseen murderer’s bullet.

Annesley biographer Ekirch felt in his response to a remark in the review of his book that "It is inconceivable that Stevenson, a voracious reader of legal history, was unfamiliar with the saga of James Annesley, which by the time of Kidnapped's publication in 1886 had already influenced four other 19th-century novels, most famously Sir Walter Scott's Guy Mannering (1815) and Charles Reade's The Wandering Heir (1873)." The Scottish author Andro Linklater, who reviewed the book for The Spectator, disagreed with this contention. The author, Robert Louis Stevenson, did not mention the earlier historic event in the novel, nor in his correspondence; instead he names The Trial of James Stewart for the murder of Colin Roy Campbell at Appin as an inspiration, according to his wife.

Edinburgh: City of Literature

As part of the events to celebrate Edinburgh becoming the first UNESCO City of Literature, three versions of Kidnapped were made freely available by being left in public places around the city. Throughout February 2007, 25,000 copies of the novel were distributed in that way.

A statue honoring Stevenson through a depiction of the two main characters from Kidnapped. Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour was unveiled in 2004 in Edinburgh. The location for the work by Scottish sculptor Alexander Stoddart is where, in the novel, the two friends part ways.

• A new printing of Barry Menikoff's edition of the novel.
• A retelling of the tale for children.
• A 2007 graphic novel version created by Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy. Translations of the graphic novel were also published in Lowland Scots and Scots Gaelic.

References

1. ^ Mantel, Hilary. "The Art of Fiction No. 226 – Hilary Mantel". The Paris Review. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
2. ^ Cramb, Auslan (14 November 2008). "18th Century murder conviction 'should be quashed'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
3. Simmons (1973), p. 61.
4. Simmons (1973), p. 62.
5. Mickenberg & Vallone (2011), p. 276.
6. Fiedler (2009), p. 15.
7. Fiedler (2009), p. 17.
8. CCI: Thomas and Gully Get "Kidnapped", Comic Book Resources, 25 July 2008
9. "Episode 1, Robert Louis Stevenson: Kidnapped, Drama – BBC Radio 4". BBC.
10. "Kidnapped - A New Touring Rom-Com Adventure". National Theatre of Scotland. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
11. Fisher, Mark (3 April 2023). "Kidnapped review – razzle-dazzling Robert Louis Stevenson". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
12. ^ Ekirch, A Roger (3 March 2010). "The story behind Kidnapped". Letters. The Spectator. Archived from the original on 10 December 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
13. ^ Ekirch, A Roger (2010). Birthright: the true story that inspired Kidnapped. W W Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06615-9.
14. ^ Linklater, Andro (27 February 2010). "The Greatest Rogue in Europe". The Spectator. Retrieved 15 July 2021. The book that actually inspired Kidnapped, according to the unambiguous statement of R.L. Stevenson's wife, was The Trial of James Stewart, a contemporary account of the murder.
15. Kidnapped, Chapter XXI.
16. "Our Story". Edinburgh City of Literature. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
17. ^ "Kidnapped". Edinburgh City of Literature. Archived from the original on 1 February 2013.
18. ^ Corbett, John (2007). "Press-Ganging Scottish Literature? Kidnapped and the City of Literature's One Book, One Edinburgh Project". International Journal of Scottish Literature (2).

Bibliography

• Beetz, Kirk H (1996). Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction. Beacham Publishing. ISBN 978-0-933833-38-8.
• Fiedler, Leslie A. (2009). "R L S Revisited". In Bloom, Harold (ed.). Robert Louis Stevenson. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-1345-6.
• Mickenberg, Julia; Vallone, Lynne, eds. (2011). "The Problems of Kidnapped". The Oxford Handbook of Children's Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19970191-9.
• Simmons, James C. (1973). The Novelist as Historian: Essays on the Victorian Historical Novel. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-139213-4.

External links

• Kidnapped at Standard Ebooks
• Kidnapped at Project Gutenberg
• Kidnapped public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Freely available Scottish Gaelic translation by Torcuil Crichton; ebook audiobook
• Film adaptions of Kidnapped Archived 16 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine. There have been about 21 movie and TV versions of the book made.
• Trail map, map of the trail.
• MacLachlan, Chistopher (2006). "Further Thoughts on Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped".
• Kidnapped study guide, themes, quotes, literary devices, teaching guide
• The Stevenson Way A long distance wilderness walk from Mull to Edinburgh, based on the route in Kidnapped.

• Kidnapped (novel)
• 1886 British novels
• Novels set in the 1750s
• Novels by Robert Louis Stevenson
• British adventure novels
• Scottish bildungsromans
• Scottish historical novels
• British young adult novels
• Novels about orphans
• Victorian novels
• Novels set in Highland (council area)
• Novels first published in serial form
• Works originally published in Young Folks (magazine)
• British novels adapted into films
• Fiction set in 1751
• Cassell (publisher) books
• British novels adapted into television shows
• Novels about child abduction
• 1880s children's books
• Novels adapted into comics